Muguruza: “I was not prepared for the emptiness of not playing tennis”

The Spanish tennis player Garbiñe Muguruza She has confessed that she was not “prepared for the great emptiness” she felt when not playing tennis, but now she considers that this period of confinement due to the coronavirus may have been a good preparation for the day when it is time to “hang up the racket”.

“When I planted myself at home, confused and without any plans, I thought: 'What now?'. My life, in which I am accustomed to a frenetic rhythm of travel, pressure and physical effort, has been stopped from overnight I was not prepared, especially for the great emptiness that I felt when I could not do what I know best: play tennis. And, especially, I was not prepared to not be able to fill that time with anything that compares to it, “says the winner of Wimledon and Roland Garros in an article published by Vogue magazine.

“My suitcases have been at home for more than two months and, to my surprise, I am in no hurry to redo them,” he says. “The world has said stop and put us on our site. Now days really have 24 hours. The minutes hardly pass and that supposes that my head is invaded of ideas “, adds Muguruza, who was preparing for the Indian Wells tournament in California (USA) at the end of February when the competition was canceled, the same as the following in Miami, and she had to rush back to her home in Geneva ( Switzerland).

“It seemed that with each passing hour the world was falling apart a little more. What had seemed unthinkable to me, like the cancellation of two of the world's largest tennis tournaments suddenly became insignificant. We had snapped out of our bubble on the pro tennis circuit. What was coming upon us, “understood the player,” was much bigger and more serious. “

In her article, the player born 26 years ago in Caracas stresses that for ten years she had never been in the same place for more than a month. “I'm breaking a record. The last time was when I had ankle surgery and I couldn't walk for several months. That was almost a decade ago,” he says. The confinement of the pandemic has meant “an elbow” for her. “Life tells you: 'Hey, there are many more things than tennis, maybe it is a good time to prepare for when that day comes. For when you have to hang up your racket. '”

The sixteenth player in the current world ranking feels “surrounded by a superficial world: the media, cameras, interested people or the famous society where the most important thing is the Bentley you have.” “I do not feel identified with that world, it is empty, it is loneliness, ephemeral pleasures. It is the unique and shared experiences that nurture, feed your vision, your perspective and the will to live,” says Muguruza, before mentioning a trip to Tanzania last October, with Kilimanjaro climb included, as the hardest experience of his life but also one of the most rewarding. “It was the first time that such an effort was just for me and no one else. There was no trophy, no cameras, no check. Only the personal satisfaction that that experience gave me “, aim. But tennis, she says, “is my passion, my job, my tool to achieve my long-awaited independence and freedom, to control my own decisions and my life as a free woman.”

Muguruza, who in the future would like to do interviews with interesting characters, learn sewing and design, cook or “take a brush and a canvas for the first time and whatever comes out,” He has taken advantage of the quarantine to resume his studies and has completed four courses: two in nutrition and health, from Stanford University; one in psychology from John Hopkins University; and one from Exercise Science, from the University of Colorado, lists the player.